1.

Just because you no longer live, doesn't mean you no longer feel pain, or fear. Just because you are already dead doesn't mean you can no longer die, or have reason to abandon fear. Just because your worst fear has come to pass doesn't mean you no longer have reason to be afraid, and just because your heart has stopped beating doesn't mean that it can no longer dream or have wants.

In the dark, damp, and dreary dungeons of the underworld, many gather with the thoughts of there being safety in numbers, each with the belief and hope that if there are so many in one spot then what are the chances that it'll single them out as an individual? He won't come for me. He can't come for me, but what if he does?

Sinead wanders through the grey mass of what once was humanity, looking for someone or something she recognizes. In this particular underworld dungeon, no one is willing to take responsibility for, or to offer a helping hand to the lost soul of one who is no more than that of a child, a child who spent a mere ten years in the land of the living, a child who knows no better, a child who does not, who did not, choose to become a disciple of the darkness.

Calling out for her mum, not knowing where her mother is or why she can't or won't find her, the gathered grey mass quickly disbands into darkness and Sinead grabs the dungeon bars in an area of little light. With one more call of 'mum', this call being spoken in a quiet, soft and scared voice, two large grey hands appear from behind, one to cover Sinead's mouth and the other to grab her forehead and she soon disappears quietly into that all-consuming darkness.

***

Felicity awakes from a not so pleasant dream and her first thoughts are with her ten-month-old baby girl. Getting up quickly she moves straight over to the cot and picks up her daughter. Felicity had to make sure all was well with her child, all was well, but she had to make sure all the same.

Something about the dream she had, really frightened her. It had been accompanied by a strong feeling. This feeling was more than just the fact that what she experienced had been more of a nightmare rather than just a dream. It had a feeling of reality about it, just as if something or someone may not only be coming, but had been around before, taking that which it does not own or have any right to claim.

It, this someone or something was waiting, is waiting, watching, for the time would come for it to take once again and if she could help it, Felicity was not about to readily let that happen.

When Felicity had awakened, it was still in the early hours of the morning with dawn being still a few hours away. After having checked on her daughter, she soon made her way back to bed and turned off her bedside lamp. Finding it difficult to return to her slumber, Felicity stared into the night-time darkness. Lying on her back Felicity all of a sudden found it difficult to turn onto her side. In fact, she found it difficult to move at all. She strangely enough felt pinned down, so much so that she found it a struggle to even move her head.

A light illuminates a pair of grey coloured hands, fingers inter linked with darkness past the wrists and these hands appeared in thin air and at the end of Felicity's bed. All Felicity could manage to move would be her eyes and it would soon seem that hands were not and are not the only thing to have appeared at the end of her bed.

The person or entity that these hands belonged to, wore dark clothing hiding the rest of his or her person, if indeed if that is what this being was or is though the hands did look to belong to a he rather than a she. The appearance of the hands would soon be followed by a deep powerful but soft sounding voice, a voice which did indeed confirm something male, and it would speak with somewhat of a sarcastic tone.

'It is easier if you do not fight it my child.'

Fear gripped Felicity, her heart beat quickened, her face paled as it drained of all colour.

'Who are you?' she asked, now struggling to catch a breath.

'I, my dear am known as Lucifer, Satan, El Diablo, the Devil, I have many names, many titles, but this visit is not about me. It is about you and that beautiful little girl of yours.'

Felicity's fear would be joined by anger and her panic intensified.

'Don't you hurt my daughter' she shouted, struggling and managing to lift her head slightly, and finding that she had little movement rather than none at all.

'I have no intentions of ever hurting your daughter, or even you for that matter.'

That pair of grey hands, still the only part of the strange intruder that Felicity could actually see, picked up and held the ten-month-old child.

'Don't you hurt her' came the scream.

'As long as you help me I can and will ensure that no harm comes to your daughter.'

'What do you want from me?'

'As you saw in your dream, I collect lost souls, souls which have no destination.'

'And what does that have to do with me?'

Placing the child back in her cot the intruder would speak again.

'You will help make sure I have more lost souls to collect upon.'

'And how or why would I do that?'

Those grey hands began to fade into darkness and the deep powerful voice spoke once more.

'I will be in touch.'

'What if I refuse?'

'Then your daughter will bring them to me ...'

With her strength and fear existing in equal measure, Felicity could now at this point move freely without feeling any kind of restraint. Straight away she got up and moved over to her daughter. To hold her daughter once more was something she had feared she wouldn't get to do again and for the first time since Felicity awoke from her nightmare the baby began to cry, something which she had not done at all in the presence of that dark entity.

'There, there now Sinead, the bad man is gone ...'

2.

Despite being physically and mentally exhausted, Darren Rafferty got into his car to drive himself home. Definitely not one of the better decisions he had made in his lifetime, as it would turn out it proved to be not only the worst decision he had ever made but a fatal one too. Not long into his journey he began to lose the battle with his exhaustion; he more than struggled to keep his eyes open. It would not have hurt to pull over and get some rest or even to have gotten a taxi home but instead he fought a war that he never had a chance of winning and it resulted with him falling asleep at the wheel.

Oncoming traffic swerved to avoid collision and this obviously enough created havoc and Darren eventually came to a halt when he collided with a tree head on. He sat back in his driver's seat only to see his own body pressed up against the steering wheel with the vehicle's horn blowing loudly. Darren's life had come to an end due to a silly and avoidable error in judgment.

At a complete loss now as for what he was now supposed to do, Darren turned his head to his right and looked out of his car window where he would see a young girl looking back at him, signalling him to approach her. She looked strange somehow, almost as if she had been drawn in pencil and drawn without colour, no colour other than grey and black.

No longer being a part of the land of the living, Darren simply stood up and stepped out and away from the car. There was no need to open or close a car door at all, not that he would be able to do so anyway. He turned back and looked at his bloodied body in disbelief. What has he done?

To his left side a bright white light appeared, an extremely bright white light which seemed to ooze peace and tranquillity, almost enticing Darren to move towards it. He does turn towards this light. It felt natural that this is where he should go but the thoughts of the young girl who now was off towards his right, prevented him from moving any closer to that light. He turned to look at her and she held out her right hand.

To Darren, the girl seemed to be no older than maybe ten or eleven years old. She once again signalled for Darren to approach her and he did so, not knowing why the compulsion to go to this girl was stronger than the compulsion to go into the light.

'I can't find my mommy' spoke the girl, 'will you help me find her?'

'Sure' responded Darren, taking the little girl's outstretched hand.

They began to walk away together and as they did so, Darren couldn't help looking back towards his car. Emergency services had arrived and were working on Darren's body. Darren was dead; nothing they could do would bring him back. There was no going back.

Still in somewhat of a daze, Darren continued to walk alongside the young girl. The bright day light which was all around quickly turned to darkness with there soon being intermittent shards of bright lights along the ground, shining like light bulbs to guide the way, a way which would lead to a crowd of people, all of who were completely void of colour. They all were as dark and grey as the little girl who had led him to this place.

Losing his grip on the hand of the young girl due to the sheer size of the gathered crowd of lost souls, Darren struggled to find where that girl had got too. He made his way through the grey crowd quite quickly, a crowd which got smaller and smaller the further Darren went, up to the point that they all had gone completely. Darren found himself alone in the darkness where he now appeared to be as dark and grey as those who had surrounded him a moment or so earlier.

Small drops of water fell quickly from high above adding to the puddles with which Darren stepped in as he walked cautiously through this dark, dank, and dreary hell like cavern. It was only at this moment that he thought 'I am on my way to hell' and he couldn't figure out why this may be so ... 'I may actually be here already'. In life he was a good person, done no more wrong than the next person, why should he be led into hell?

It hit him. It was the little girl. She brought him here to this place. She had taken him away from Heaven's bright light and brought him to the dark stinking dungeons of the underworld. Why? Why has this happened?

Darren came up to a set of steel bars and found himself trapped. On the other side of those bars the little girl stood and watched as a pair of grey hand wrapped themselves around Darren, one over his face and the other across his chest. The little girl watched the man she brought to this dark underworld disappeared into darkness. When he was gone, she turned and walked away ...